Clear Lake, Iowa!?!  REALLY???  WHY???  Where is it??

As is always said – “the fun is enjoying the getting there not just the end result”.  So – you have to wait for all the answers;-)

The blog postings have reported several times that MiniMagic has dodged LOTS of predicted BAD weather – tornadoes, hail, high winds, etc., etc., etc.!!  This travel day was no exception.  Maybe – just maybe – we could slip between the two red and yellow blobs on the radar.  Spoiler alert – we DID.

Dodging another thunderstorm.  Many thanks to the weather God protecting us;-)

MiniMagic took us across the Mississippi, signaling we were on our way west.  One might remember our discussion back in Baton Rouge about the rising Mississippi River and that it was to be in flood stage there in early June.  Well – a little further north in Iowa the river was frightfully high – –

The Mississippi in Iowa is quite high! Getting close to the tracks here – and the road.

Somehow MiniMagic found this quaint little village of Sabula, Iowa right on the Mississippi (for lunch) as we ventured up this green dot road.  There is nothing like a small town in the US on a long weekend celebrating a day like Memorial Day.  The display of flags in the cemeteries and along the roads is tear evoking.  Sabula even included the small white crosses – each with a veterans name.  (Small note – the residents here did all of this while sandbagging and pumping out their basements full of water.)

Memorial Day weekend in small town Iowa.

Flags and white crosses – what a reminder.

Now – Clear Lake.  February, 1959 (60 years ago, so you don’t have to do the math) the Winter Dance Party (what was to be a 24 day barnstorming tour in the Midwest) played the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake.  Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper” performed along with Waylon Jennings, Dion and the Belmonts and many others.  For the first three this would be their last performance on the fateful night of February 2, 1959.  To those of us who lived their songs – visiting here was an emotional experience.

The legendary Surf Ballroom.

Concerts are still performed here throughout the year.

Tiers of tables ring the dance floor.  (Yes – we “took a turn” on the floor.) 

Richie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper remembered across from the stage.

The Green Room – where the performers prepared for their turn on stage – has been maintained much as it was in 1959.  This includes the ‘ancient’ sinks that served as ‘laundry machines’ for those here on February 2, 1959 as well as the very chairs they sat in.  (More recent groups have been allowed to ‘leave their marks’ on the walls.  Amazing who you can find here now!)

G may be sitting where Buddy Holly sat.  ‘Laundry sinks’ to his right;-)

Don McLean wrote the first verse of American Pie on the Green Room wall in 1994.

Buddy Holly was frustrated and fed up with their travel arrangements and the continuous breaking down of the buses.  So, he chartered a private plane – NOT named Miss American Pie as famously rumored – for himself and his backup players.  As they were leaving the Ballroom late after their performance, there was a lot of jockeying for places on the plane and two of his band members gave up seats to Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.  Unfortunately, the weather was VERY bad that late night and the plane perhaps should have never taken off.  But – it did.  And crashed in a corn field just 6 miles from the airport killing all aboard – –

The site of the plane crash – in the middle of a corn field.

The marker for the trail to the crash site memorial.  What could be more appropriate?

Very tasteful, fitting memorial.

The “best” hotel in town. Many Surf Ballroom acts have stayed here over the year.  Hum –  who stayed in our room?  Maybe G’s girlfriend Faith Hill;-)

The journey to Clear Lake, Iowa was intentional.  Our love for this era of music runs deep and the sadness for the loss of these talented individuals is real.  Visiting these venues truly meant something to us and we are so happy to have made the trek.

As an aside – Clear Lake is a wonderful, very friendly little town – on a gorgeous lake with a quaint little downtown square on the Lake – that has done a superb job of maintaining this bit of music history.  Hats off to them;-)

E & G – moved, happy, emotional & reminiscent.